Capac holds off an Armada rally, escapes with 26-20 win

Capac quarterback Jon Botwin dashes away from a pair of Armada defenders during Friday’s Blue Water Area Conference matchup. Capac won the game by a 26-20 count. photo by Kevin Kissane.

September 19, 2007

CAPAC — Host Capac took a commanding 26-0 lead after three quarters were complete and held on for a 26-20 win against Armada in a Blue Water Area Conference varsity football encounter last Friday night.

With the outcome, Capac improves to 3-1 and 2-1. Armada falls to 1-3 and 0-3.

"It is a good thing we got the start that we did," Capac Coach Tom Manney said. "Give Armada credit, they never gave up," he noted.

"We faced some adversity but we were able to handle it. We executed well enough during the final minutes to win the game."

In Friday's encounter, Capac grabbed a 7-0 edge after one quarter was complete.

Quarter number two would see Capac widen the gap some.

It was there Capac put up 12 points, while allowing Armada none.

That staked Capac to a 19-0 cushion at the halftime break.

When the action resumed, Capac padded its cushion even more.

Aided by a 7-0 third quarter edge, Capac raised its advantage to 26-0.

Armada then put together a 20-0 fourth quarter rally, only to fall by a 26-20 count when the final second ticked off the clock.

Capac generated their 26-point output thanks to a Jon Botwin to Tino Siewert 31-yard touchdown pass (followed by a successful extra-point kick courtesy of Chee Vang); a Jon Botwin 43-yard touchdown pass; an Andrew Gutierrez four-yard touchdown run; and a Botwin 33-yard touchdown tote (followed by an accurate extra-point boot from Vang). Those scores came with 7:42 showing on the first quarter clock; 10:20 to play before halftime; with 2:00 showing on the second quarter clock; and 6:25 before the third quarter was to end.

Armada manged their 20-point total aided by a Jacob Moegle to Chris Ludwig 21-yard touchdown pass; a Moegle to Jared Wozniak 19-yard touchdown pass; and a Moegle to Wozniak 23-yard touchdown pass (followed by a PAT pass from Moegle to Ludwig). Those tallies happened with 11:45 showing on the fourth quarter clock; 6:43 from the finish; and with 2:51 showing on the fourth quarter clock.

Botwin completed six of 13 pass plays for 103 yards as Capac's quarterback. He threw zero interceptions along the way.

His successful tosses went to two different targets. Their ranks consisted of Tino Siewert (four catches for 75 yards) and Kevin Bollaert (two receptions for 28 yards).

The Capac ground attack chewed up 291 yards of territory on 48 totes.

Individually, Botwin led Capac with 129 yards. It took him 15 carries to log that output. He was backed by Tony Medrano (six rushes for 80 yards) and Joe Harvey (42 yards on 10 carries). The remaining 28 Chief rushes netted a combined 40-yard gain.

On the opposite side of the football, Jacob Zuby (eight solos and two assists) put up Capac's best numbers. Ruben Nino (four solos and five assists), Anthony Theel (four solos, including three quarterback sacks, and one assist), Mike Walker (three solos and two assists), Alex Wegner (two solos, including a quarterback sack, and two assists) and Shawn Kaiser (one solo and three assists) exhibited a nose for the football as well.

Capac will aim to continue their winning ways this Friday when it travels to Algonac for a Blue Water Area Conference game. That matchup lists a 6:55 p.m. starting time.

Sports Editor, Kevin Kissane has been covering sports for the Tri-City Times for over 20 years and is one of the most recognizable personalities in the area. Kevin when not covering anything from little league baseball to football, or softball to basketball, can be found on the links playing his favorite sport, golf.